Meet Employee of the Month: Nikesh Purnaa’s Sourcing Manager

by Sonja Kraft

Nikesh with Some Swatches from our Library

Congratulations, you won the employee of the month award!

Oh, thank you very much.

How did you feel when you found out that you won?

I hadn’t imagined that I would be employee of the month. So when it was announced I was surprised! I had only been at Purnaa for a few months. I was very happy. It was very nice, I am proud to be a part of Purnaa.

We want to get to know you a little bit better. Can you tell us about your family?

Ah, my family. I am living with my mother, father, wife and now my small baby. He is 7 months old. Last week was his rice feeding time and it was so nice. That was a great day for me. When a baby turns seven months old, we do the rice feeding ceremony. For seven months we don’t feed them any rice, only the milk from their mother. There are differences between cultures, but the main thing is we feed them rice on that day and then continue from that day on.

If you only had one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

In one word? I’m thinking I would say mercy.

When have you been most satisfied in your life?

Recently. After I joined Purnaa. Previously I was in Saudi Arabia, I was making money, but in my heart I was not feeling well. I felt sad because I was away from my wife and from my family. I had feelings of loneliness. Now I have this job and I can stay with my family, wife, and son. I feel satisfied. Now I am in Nepal.

What is your job at Purnaa?

My job is sourcing. Sourcing the materials for what we manufacture here, like fabric, metal items like buckles, any materials we use to manufacture here. My job is to try to find the good quality material for Purnaa.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy when I go outside. If I had to stay inside all day I might feel lazy. But I have different tasks. I need to run errands and I must complete those. One of the interesting things though, when I travel to different places there are many things I can see. Maybe something fun is happening in the road or beside the road, I get to see that. So it doesn’t feel boring. It’s always interesting. Sometimes the work is challenging but challenging is good. We get different ideas from the challenges and we will learn from them.

How long have you worked at Purnaa?

Eight months

What did you do before you worked at Purnaa?

I was in Saudi Arabia. I was in a logistics transportation company. I had to handle a lot of the problems. One part of my work was to handle the emails from the customers. The customers would email about the shipments and any problems there were with the shipments. I had a lot of pressure coming from the customers. There were different kinds of problems I needed to fix and handle.

The Purnaa Logistics and Accounts Team

What is different about Purnaa from other places you have worked?

Before working here I had to work a minimum of 12 hours a day. So I sometimes I used to work 14 hours or 15 hours continuously. The main difference though is that I can work here and be with my family, but there I was without my family.

What have you learned from working at Purnaa that you would like to share with others?

I’ve learned that this organization not only runs to do business but to provide a social service as well. This is a very good thing. We can tell other businessmen when they do business, then they can also do social service as well. There are a lot of poor people and a lot of people who don’t have work. Sometimes when I go to the temple I see a lot of people who are begging. I feel so sad for those people. If all the businessmen would also do some social service, then poverty would be gone. Right? If every organization and every businessman had the concept of doing business as well as social service then there would be no poverty. Right?

If I were to ask your boss what your greatest strength is, what would they tell me?

I try to find a solution to a problem as soon as possible.

If you had to convince a friend to apply for this job, what would you tell them?

First I would describe what Purnaa does. For example, it’s not only a business organization, it’s a social organization as well. If you plan to join Purnaa you should want to help others, be honest, respectful and not selfish.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to watch movies. I like to visit places outside of the Kathmandu valley. Kathmandu valley used to be so nice and clean, but now the condition has totally changed. It is so dirty. I would like to travel with my family but currently I have a small baby, so I don’t think it’s okay to take the small baby so far. I love traveling to different places, but because my baby is so small I don’t have am not getting a chance to do that right now. In the future, I will visit other places. I also like to play football, basketball, and things like that. But currently I have no friends to play with. Some of my friends are in different places now. The ones who are still here are busy in their work like me, so we have no chance to play.

What dreams do you have for the future?

Currently my father is without work. My future plan is to do some sort of small business also, so that my father can work there. I will continue my job here and if I do some other small business, then I can hand that over to my father. Then both of us can work. I hope that Purnaa will get a lot of orders so that Purnaa can grow larger and then hire more people who are very poor or distanced from society.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

If we keep on working on hard, each and every department, then I hope one day we will be growing. So we need to be strong, and keep doing the work honestly. Then we will not go down, just up.